The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-01-19

| prlCeS' 1Ou WHO nave neduS, Jake
advantage of the situation,
THERE are thousands of acres of
land to be had here in Vermont that
the first years crop would pay for, yet
many will go further West and fare
worse.
ALL good soils contain within them
selves fertilizing elements sufficient to
bring forth good crops for hundreds of
years, but it takes time and good cul-
ture to make it available.
In one ton (2,240 pounds) of COM
mon salt there are 1913 pounds of soda
and | ,344 of chlorine. In one ton of
gypsum there are 1,3l7 pounds of sui
phuric acid. The rest is lime.
OUT of all the countless myriads of
people who have lived on the earth,
not one individual has ever succeeded
in gaining profit, or even increasing bis
sum total of happiness, by doing wrong.
THE world should not be divided into
workers and thinkers, but every worker
should be thinker. The agricultural
colleges are for the training of men
who can both work and think-broad,
sound men.
ONE thing is certain: all the apples
will be wanted at good prices, as the
Western and Middle States market for
apples is quite bare, and shipments are
already going to New York and Phila-
delphia from Boston.
IT is well said that though the breed
is half the advantage, yet the man is
the other half, for the best breed will
entail failure if lack of care, injudi-
cious management or inexperience be-
come obstacles in the way.
THERE is little doubt that the Per-
cheron is the coming horse for the New
England farmer to breed, as it natures
so early and is so easily trained that at
the age of two or three years he can do
enough work to well pay for his keeping.
THE preference for white or yellow
corn is not wholly a. matter of taste.
Yellow corn has generally rather more
oil and is preferable for fattening,
while white corn meal is better for
working horses and growing stock. The
western or Dent corn is less hearty
than our eastern flint varieties.
E. w. MERRITT of Houlton, Maine,
says: "The Wealthy has been kept
here until the middle of April, making
it winter apple here. l am aware
that much has been said and written
on the keeping qualities of the Wealthy
and wide difference of opinion pre-
walls, but il may be safely classed with
the winter apples here"
If land is now in pasture adapted TO
grass, but too far distant from the
buildings to put it into cultivation for
want Of manure or expense of carting
it that distance, it can be broken up
and MANFRED with chemicals and put
into cultivated crops for two or three
years, or at once laid down to grass,
smooth and even, and kept so.
THE heaviest expense to poultry
house is generally the roof. The cheap
est material for that purpose is tarred
felt, but unless such a roof is well Sc
cured the wind is often too strong for
it, ripping it up so as to render it I'M
serviceable. In using tarred felt the
roof of the poultry-house should be
nearly fot, with slight incline only,
so as to permit of the water flowing off.
! A CAREFUL observeramOngap ple-trees
has tried different methods of reducing
the tops of young trees, where planted
out in an orchard, and found the best
results from slight thinning of the
branches rather than the severe cutting
back of all branches, as recommended
by so many theoretical writers and
speakers. This corresponds with our
own experience, and long since we dis
carded cutting back, save in cases of an
unusual loss of roots.
A WISE providence has withheld from
man the ability to exhaust land more
than to limited extent. The farmer
can, indeed, so far exhaust the land as
to render it incapable of producing a
crop that will be remunerative; but
even when such is the case there is an
amount of latent fertility left sufficient
to sustain the population of ages. To
instruct the farmer how economically
to develop that latent fertility and
maintain it in his land is the aim and
object of agricultural chemistry.
How many thousands, and we might
say millions, of dollars are farmers 60
ing to lose this month and during the
winter by stock running down. 1t costs
food to get them in good condition, and
this food was drawn from the resources
of the farm-its pastures, its hay and
grain. Every pound of grain repre-
sents its equivalent of value in the pro-